My roommate introduced me to Lush. I walked into my first lush store and thought they would have the answers to all my skincare problems and needs. FALSE. Every facial product broke me out and clogged pores causing huge cystic acne breakouts. They know nothing about skincare as all their products were very irritating. Their soaps are too drying, and their bath stuff is wayyy overpriced. I got so caught up in the LUSH craze and bough tons of stuff from there. I regret every single item I purchased. This may work for some, but I have finally learned my lesson and will never step foot in there again.

EDIT: At the risk of sounding like a hypocrite, I have given lush another chance. This time I've focused on body products which is what lush does best. I still find most of their face products a let down (I'm trying fresh farmacy and eau de Roma toner, the sacred truth mask, and.magnaminty right now) I'm on the fence about these so far. I will say that dream cream is the best thing ever created. For that reason alone go to lush! I'm still experimenting with their products (which is an expensive habit btw) but that's part of what makes lush so addicting!

People keep complaining about the price.. get over it. I bet you spend money on name brand clothes/shoes or purses, something that is purely based on making yourself look better which is really quite vain. But yet it is such a big deal to spend a little bit more money on shampoo or a facial cleanser that you actually need? everyone needs to wash their hair and face but no one NEEDS a pair of 200 $ shoes, and with that being said there is nothing that even costs 200.00 at lush. I don't understand how people don't understand that essential oils are EXPENSIVE and lush has to buy them from suppliers who obviously have to make money themselves. All of the products are also hand made, packaged by hand. Everything else that you're buying is coming from a machine, and is using things in them that aren't good for your skin. I understand not everyone can afford to use lush products, and i'm not ragging on people who just can't. But don't rag on the company for being so expensive if you are someone who will pay 400 dollars for your outfit but not 40 for something that is more benefical to your skin then what they sell at the drug stores. Also, to who ever put that lush uses perfumes in their facial moisturizers, do your research. lush uses essential oils in their moisturizers and different essential oils do different things (imagine that?). any time their is a perfume* listed on a lush product that means that it is a blend of different essential oils to make things smell good. reading all of your rants just made me disgusted. At least lush is a company that is at least trying instead of just pretending. They are always having compaigns about things that are relevant in our world and are trying to do things to change them, how many clothing stores or drug store brands are trying to do that?

Finally a LUSH store opened near me! The other store that was a bit to far for me to travel to closed within less than a year, so I am cautiously optimistic for this one...

After using various LUSH products (some I loved, some I despised) since their inception, I was excited to check out the store. This was a brand new store and frankly, the sales associates were overbearing. Any product I inquired about, the SA responded that she used it herself and absolutely loved it! Really.Was disappointed to find that stores do not carry retro products which are a hassle to order online (pay shipping charge, often out of stock, long ship time).I do support the LUSH philosophies of minimal packaging, natural/predominantly vegan ingredients/no animal testing/fair trade, etc.BUT I was really disappointed with how pricey the products were and what appeared to me to be poor decision making on the part of LUSH. For example, the powders used to come in a shaker container which I found to be terrific. Now, anything in powder form comes in a plastic bottle with a flip top lid similar to shampoo bottles. When I used the tester it was nearly impossible to get the powder out and the amount is less than when it was packaged in the shaker, yet it's the same price!

I did buy a few items, but this visit squelched my current lemmings for all things LUSH. Will I buy LUSH products again? Yes, yes I'm sure I will.

I am an addict. I love the product sourcing, the fair trade purchases, the minimal chemical profiles, and the deluxe samples. Since a family cancer scare, I have been seeking more appopriote personal products and lush has the whole package. When we are offered samples, I ask the staff to make recommendation. Most result in new acquisition. My grand baby with skin allergies can use it, my 20-something daughters enjoy products and I am just content to enjoy Athens stuff that makes personal care fun again

I first got into it from all the reviews I kept hearing about HIWTK. I love anything toffee and honey smelling, so I bought a bar and have been a Lush convert since!

The highlight for me are the unique products and scents. I'm 25, but the kid in me comes out with the novelty of a bubble bar covered in gold glitter!Lush have products and scents that no other company has, and they actually invented the bath bomb! I know that some customers have come into the store and asked for lavender soap, which Lush doesn't have, because you can get lavender soaps almost anywhere and Lush tries to stay away from common scents and make their own special ones.

The experience at Lush is a bit different from other stores, the sales assistants do their best to explain the products and how they work. They are pushy though.

NEGATIVE STAFF EXPERIENCES:- Guy employee starts talking to me about a product I wasn't interested in.. before I knew what was happening, he was putting lotion on my arm without my permission. I didn't buy it of course, but wouldn't have been interested in that product regardless.- First time I went into Lush to buy HIWTK, I didn't know you had to buy 100g MINIMUM of soap. I asked for 50g. The SA just stood there laughing at me :/ As a first time Lush buyer, she's lucky that didn't put me off entering Lush stores for life.- Some Lush employees are questionable. They b*tch about customers and employees from other Lush stores behind their backs. And I know this is fact, I used to work at Lush and listened in on these conversations.- They also don't give employees a review on how they're doing during their probation period, then a termination just appears out of nowhere. The termination process of some managers are also questionable, perhaps they need more PD's on this kind of thing.

I love how Lush has testers for almost every product in the store, so you can test it to see if you like it. If I go past a Lush but don't intend on buying something, I can't help but go in and use some solid perfume and some hand cream!

I also like how Lush uses fresh, organic and fair trade ingredients wherever possible, and uses minimal packaging, which can be recycled anyway.If you go to Lush's YouTube page, you can watch vids on how they make the products, it's really interesting to see! You can see them peeling papaya's and kiwifruit and hand pouring pretty much everything into moulds.

The price isn't fantastic to be really honest. If you have long hair and buy a hair treatment, you'll pay $25 to use it once, twice if you use it sparingly. Other things are good value for money like the lip balms/tints, solid shampoo's and Lemony Flutter, where a little goes a long way.Think of it like this; - Lush products contain ingredients you can pronounce and 90% would be familiar to you- The products are handmade; fruits are peeled by hand, products are poured by hand, mixed by hand, measured and weighed by hand, rolled and cut by hand, etc, etc. People do the work, not machines.Of course products will be a bit more because of these reasons.

Overall, the store's alright. It smells great, the products and scents are unique and you won't find them anywhere else!

To the reviewer below me, the only face masks or scrubs that are uncovered are the testers, whose lids go back on at the end of the day, or they are covered in cling wrap and refrigerated. All the masks/scrubs for customers to purchase have lids and Lush are quite strict with stock rotation and not selling products past their use by date; these products get taken off the shelves. And if it was a scrubby face mask, you only have 3 weeks to use it and it must be kept in the fridge.

EDIT:Lush does not properly train their new employees. They are expected to do most of their 'training' by themselves by doing a lot of reading. The excuse for this is that Lush "can't afford to train staff because of budget allowances". This is a cop out, as even not-for-profit organisations can afford to train new employees.Lush can't expect new employees to give the best service and provide the best product knowledge without sufficient training. It's cheap, lazy and not fair on new employees to expect them to learn so much in such little time. Employees are not their job, there is many more things to people than a job.

They also expect employees to do 5 demos on EVERY customer. 5. Seriously?! As a customer, there's no way I could be bothered sticking around that long to go through 5 demos, so they can try and convince you that you need them all.

I remember years and years ago going to the first NYC store and being very charmed by everything. Loved the cutesy hippie-dippieness, the generous samples, loved the idea that it was "natural", no wasteful packaging etc. But here's the thing. The products are no good. I mean, the body soaps may be fine, but the facial skincare products are awful. They're full of fragrance and irritants, and backwards and amateurish from a formulation standpoint.

This is a world of skincare in which no sunscreen is available... how much can they really know about what is good for skin if they haven't even figured that out yet?

The fact that I have, in the past, paid $7 for ONE (mediocre) bath bomb makes me hate myself a little. $7 to take ONE not-at-all-special bath?

But the piece de resistance was

*DO NOT CONTINUE READING UNLESS YOU ARE PREPARED TO BE GROSSED OUT*

when I got some kind of face scrub containing almonds. I didn't like it, so it sat in the bathroom medicine cabinet for a month or so. Finally my husband said to me "Hey, do you want this face scrub with maggots in it or should I just throw it out?" Yes. It had maggots. I am not making this up. I am not exaggerating. The LUSH store had all this stuff sitting out uncovered, no proper hygienic packaging, no decent preservation system, and the result was MAGGOTS.

Preservatives in personal care products are a very good thing. Yay for preservatives! Boo to LUSH. I will never go there again.

PS- Replying to the poster above me who said the product should have been refrigerated- I was told by the SA that it would keep for 3 months unrefrigerated, and there was nothing on the packaging to indicate otherwise. It was not one of the fresh masks but some kind of cleanser/scrub. And in point of fact, that particular LUSH store (Menlo Park, NJ) kept everything out uncovered, not just testers. At least, that is what they did about 2 years ago when this incident took place.

Oh how I love Lush. I only get things once in a while because Lush is expensive but I never regret it. The ladies in Lush do demnostrations of the products for you and are very sweet and helpful. The store has an amazing fruity scent and I also get something. If you only get one thing there get the Rose Jam Bubbleroon Bubble Bar. Heaven in Lush.

Lush is a beauty company that claims to be environmentally friendly. Their products are natural, hand-made, and vegetarian (they don't test on animals at all). Most of their products are paraben-free, but occasionally, you will still find some items containing parabens. They also make really innovative and fun products. For example, they've created shower jellies, which are wobbly, jello-like substances made with seaweed and can supposedly wash not only your body, but your hair and scalp, too. They also have toothy tabs, which are portable, solid tabs of toothpaste. Then there's the really adorable magic wands, which are decorative bubble bars that you wave in the bath to create the perfect bubble bath. And that's not the end of it, either. Really, in concept and quality, they're quite wonderful.

However, they aren't without flaws. The most noticeable problem with their stores are the prices. Seriously, as lovely as their products are, it's not worth paying around $20 - $30 dollars for items that are either going to expire before you get the most out of them, or are going to be used up within a two week span. They are incredibly expensive, and the only places where the prices seem relatively decent are the stores located in the UK, which is where the company originates from. No joke, If you live outside the UK, expect the prices to be only affordable for when you have extra cash. Another notable issue is how the stores are overwhelmingly smelly. I don't necessarily mean they stink of rancid socks or something, I just mean you can smell them a mile away. Their stores have conflicting and confusing concentrated smells from all their products, and it can definitely make you feel dizzy and lightheaded. It's overpowering, and it's a turn-off for lots of customers. Oh, and like I've mentioned previously, there's the issue about some of their stuff still containing parabens. For a company that boasts about being friendly to the environment and having healthy ingredients, the items that still have parabens causes a lot of hypocrisy and doubt.

Personally, my favorites are their hair products and shower gels. I also enjoy their face masks, but unfortunately, they've raised the prices on them so much, that for the quantity you receive, it's just not worth purchasing. Honestly, the prices are such a huge downfall, that they really do throw this company back at 3 lippies.

I absolutely love visiting LUSH stores. It's a special treat since I live about an hour and a half from one. The store I frequent is small or I would give it a 5 rating. It's clean and smells amazing. The sales staff is always incredibly helpful and knowledgeable in the products. I love the displays and how you can pick up testers to smell and try them out. My store has never batted an eyelash at giving me samples of products I want to try out before doling out big money on it. LUSH can be expensive but I have several HG products from there like Trichomania, R&B, Jungle, Soap of Sultana, and a few others. I will absolutely visit a LUSH store anytime I can!!!